The IPL season this year 2020 was a challenge and as it nears its climax, it seems to have been fairly successful. It has crossed halfway without any significant issues and if they pull off without any damage by November 10, as one hopes to, it would reinforce the leadership credentials of Saurav Ganguly and his team. It has been drawing interest in the television as usual though the absence of spectators certainly takes away the glamour that is associated with the game. It is different thing altogether playing in front of thousands of cheering spectators and perhaps very different on ground bereft of spectators. Yet as IPL is managing its toughest season, as are other sports, it would be instructive to have a peek at the future of the game, the T20 version in particular.
For ages, the cricket prowess was determined exclusively through test cricket. Along the way came the limited over internationals. The limited overs might have denoted different numbers to different countries. It was, in the course of time, standardized to fifty overs. However, the World Cups in England in 1975 to 1983 were of sixty overs each. There have been attempts to rejuvenate the game with frequent inventions. Cricket was essentially facing a trade-off. If the focus was on the five day game, the expansion would hit a limit while if it has to get globalized, it needed to invent a shorter game that would offer a more levelling field for the minor teams. The one-day internationals were supposed to be a route towards the same and to a certain extent it succeeded. Yet as it happens with any form, the interest levels reach a saturation necessitating the innovation of some other form. Many such innovations were attempted but none succeeded. Incidentally the only innovations that have succeeded are those which have reduced the duration of the game without affecting the other characteristics. The one day internationals or the T20 versions but reduce the time and overs but keep the other features the same. There have been attempts at indoor cricket, beach cricket, eight-a –side and some other versions but none picked up. Indoor cricket might have its following but remains an outsider of sorts. As the overs reduced, the focus shifted from picking up twenty wickets to containing the batsmen. Moreover, given the need to arouse spectator interest, the pitches were more batting friendly and thus it became a batsman’s game leaving the bowlers with little succour. The T20 version has made it all about run chases with bowlers having very few weapons or options in their armoury. Moreover, the limit on number of overs, a bowler can bowl restricts the options of the fielding side. To add is the powerplay which completely suits the batsman. In the T10 version, the game might become even more skewed towards the batsmen. As the T20 and its shorter cousin T10 expands into the new geographies, the role of the bowler might have to be completely reinvented. The genuine bowlers might find themselves side-lined or irrelevant. If a bowler has to bowl maximum four overs, the need for a regular bowler might disappear giving way to all-rounders who can bat a bit and bowl a bit. In this context, the new geographies evolving into the test format would almost be zero. Therefore it is pertinent to find how the game can be more balanced, more even between batsmen and the bowlers. It is the battle between the two that people come to watch.
One suggestion has been to expand the boundary lines, make them longer. Yet with the fields being big, the boundary lines already at the edge of the field, there is little scope for this to happen. There are suggestions to make the outfield slow, perhaps by growing little more of grass, yet there might be concerns about fielder safety. There are of course views that the pitch might be made perhaps in alignment with the fourth day test pitch, where still amount of batting is possible, but pitch is showing signs of crumbling. It could also be a pitch of perhaps of early second day test match where some amount of swing and bounce is visible in the morning but slowly eases out into a nice batting surface. Yet as one examines the same, the standardisation of pitches is something that cricket can avoid around. It is the uncertainty over the pitches that makes cricket a glorious game, the ones bouncy in Australia or South Africa, swinging tracks in England or those spin minefields in the Indian sub-continent. Accompanying these are those renowned for being featherbeds from Trent Bridge to St. Johns. As one discounts the size of boundary lines, slowness of the outfield or the uniqueness of the pitch, it must be pondered over on the measures that bring parity between bat and ball.
One measure that could be implemented in the T10 version at least would reduction in the number of wickets. While the teams can field eleven players, only eight wickets are allowed instead of ten. This would make the possibilities of scoring calculations very different. One reason why batsmen take the risk is the probability of getting all out in twenty overs or in the shorter version the ten overs. Secondly, the cap on the overs per bowler must be done away with. There should be no reason why a bowler must not bowl ten overs or five as the case might be. It must be upto the fielding side on how do they want to use the bowlers. The bowlers must be allowed a couple of bouncers per batsman per over with an additional bouncer in the power play. The bowling power play must allow the freedom to set the field to the fielding side. During bowling power play, the rules on the wide might be relaxed. Further in these versions of the game, the leg bye must not count. The leg bye can remain a scoring shot in the one day or tests but not in the T20 or shorter versions. Maybe the front foot rule can be reintroduced but then that has to happen for tests and one dayers too. One is not sure how receptive this would be.
As one glances at the current state of the T20, while the interest is definitely high, cricket must begin to plan to make the contest even between the bat and ball. T20 will be the preferred form for the new teams that are emerging. In women’s cricket too, it is likely to be the dominant form. In the current state it will be the batter’s game thus the bowlers will turn into an endangered species. This has to be put an end to and one needs to revive the game what it stood originally for. Those who take wickets win matches.
Thoughts on Theory and Practice 